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Published: February 8th 2007
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Heading to San Pedro
Petra, Katrin, Alida, and Sara before crossing over to San Pedro. Over shots of tequilla at La Paranda on Wednesday night, we each vowed to go to Lake Atitlan for the weekend. So on Friday after lunch, Alida and I loaded our packs onto our backs and headed to Parque Central to meet Katrin, Sara, Brandon, and Petra. The first adventure was getting to Terminal Minerva, what people loosley refer to as a bus station. It is not so much a station as it is a wide street that serves as the meeting grounds for the large brightly painted, former yellow school bus, chicken buses and their prospective passengers. And it is located at one end of a densely packed market, one which we had to push our way through to get to the bus because the microbus had dropped us off on the other side of the market. The adventure was all the more fun because none of us had any idea what the terminal looked like or what we were looking for. Although we found some buses lined up on another street and thought it might be the terminal, when we actually found it, we knew.
We were one of the first few people on the bus; we occupied
Mario's Rooms
Strange greeting, but beautiful courtyard. the last seats and secured our packs to the racks above our seats. Then we waited. The bus was to leave at 3:30 and around 4 it began to make its move out of the sea of buses and onto its route. This was my first experience on a chicken bus. There were no chickens. Nor animals of any kind. The bus made several stops and the bus did get crowded, three people to a bench seat and some people standing in the aisle. Remarkably, the man who called for stops, collected the money, and coordinated the luggage on top of the bus was still able to make his way up and down the aisle to collect money. They don't collect money as you get on or when you get off, but somewhere in between. With people getting on and off all the time, the job requires great skill in remembering who has paid and who has not. There are no tickets or reciepts (except I learned that on some of the buses, they do give receipts). The price also varies with how far you're traveling, so the man must remember where you got on and you must tell him
More pizza . .
This was our first meal at Lake Atitlan- more pizza. Petra, Alida, Sara, Marta, and Brandon if you are not going to the end of the line. Even more remarkable than the memory required is the daredevil stunts he must perform. While the bus is still moving, he would come to the back of the bus, open the door, crawl out onto the ladder, climb ontop of the bus and prepare to throwdown luggage as people got off. This required tha he also remember which bag belonged to which person. He would frequently jump back in the front door or the back door after the bus was again moving. He also had to be aware of when people needed the bus to stop and yell to the driver to stop. It was very impressive. Also impressive is the way the people are so accomodating to this process and to eachother squishing in and bumping into one another to move about.
When we got to Panajacel, we were met by a swarm of men trying to convince us to go with them to a nice hotel they knew so they could get commission. We went to a place we'd heard was good= Mario's Rooms, but were met with strange resistance. We rang the doorbell and could
Late night stroll
After happy hour and a bit of dancing we strolled down to the lake. see some women talking and they looked at us and then just ignored us. Finally one came over and answered the door and asked what we wanted, which we thought was strange since it was pretty obvious we wanted to rent rooms. She told us to wait and went to get someone else. After much debate, they let us in and gave us three rooms for two for fifty quetzales per person, that's about $7 each. The courtyard was beautiful, we had private bathrooms, although our shower did not work, and it was centrally located. We got settled in and got ready for dinner.
We went for pizza again, the Germans' favorite food. Then we went for happy hour at the bar next door. We were a bit disappointed by the discotec scene. There was only one that had people dancing, the dance floor was small, and Alida felt like everyone was old enough to be her mother, so we took a stroll down to the lake and enjoyed the moonlit view. We had arrived after dark, so it was not until the next day that we viewed the lake in all its glory.
We went for breakfast
Hotel in San Pedro
Nice rooms, private baths, rooftop patio, beautiful view. in a cafe on the main road and were constantly approached by children trying to sell us trinkets. Then we spent some time shopping. I vowed I would go back, so I did not go crazy buying alot of things. Brandon and Alida bought flutes and spent the rest of the weekend trying to figure out how to play them.
The boat to San Pedro was easy to find and the ride over was calm and beautiful. The lake was bigger than it looks and it took about a half hour or so to cross. When we arrived on the other shore we were again met by many men wanting to take us to a hotel. We followed one man and after deciding we did not like the place, followed him to another where we stayed and which we loved. It took some negotiating with six people translating and trying to reach consensus, but we managed.
We had pizza again for lunch, at a place run by Italians, so the pizza was pretty good. Then we made our way to the beach. More like a rocky shoreline or cliff by the water. We climbed down and found some
boulders large enough and flat enough to spread out on, then we dove in. Okay, so I squeemishly waded in little by little. It was cold, but no colder than Barton Springs and once I was in, it was, of course, fantastic and breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring. Then I found a nice spot on a rock to lay down and dry slowly in the sun.
After walking around the town a bit, we began our evening on the rooftop of our hotel with a bottle of rum and coke. We were joined by Leiron, who had studied with Brandon in Xela, and John from California who just happened to be in the same hotel. We had some bread as well and for the next few hours enjoyed kicking back and enjoying the company and the view.
Although we'd forgotten about looking for dinner, we found several discotecs, one where I danced with a very happy Guatemalan who told me he was a dance instructor, and then found a hostel that was throwing a party with a live band. It was a very nice hostel set a ways back from town. Past the dancing area was a walk with
Swiming in cold waters
Sara, Brandon, and Alida were the first to brave the chilly waters. short tables surrounded by people sitting on pillows, beyond wich was a nice big yard. After exploring, I had a nice conversation with the security guard before heading back to the dance. I also met one of the firedancers who was looking for his gasoline. I went back out to watch the fire dancers later. They were amazing.
Apparently San Pedro is home to many many hippies from around the world. Both because its so laid back and beautiful and because there are drugs in abundance.
After the dance we ran across a little restaurant run by a guy from the states serving bbq and hamburgers. He gave us a deal on the chili cheese fries he'd already made because someone else had ordered them and not come back for them and Katrin and I shared a burger. After eating some burgers at other places since then I have a greater appreciation for him gloating about people saying his were so good. They were good.
In the morning, we had breakfast at a nice cafe right off the water. We also had a bit of a fright. Someone had told Alida that the last bus for Xela
Rocky Beaches
Sunbathing on a rock. had already left. We refused to accept this since everyone told us something different, so we loaded up once again, took a boat back across the lake, and walked right onto a bus headed direct to Xela. The return trip was less eventful than the trip there. I slept most the way. I returned with a slight sunburn and a bit of frustrating having not spoken much spanish all weekend. I paid or it on Monday- it took a while to get back into it. But it was a beautiful and worthwile trip.
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